Browder, Earl Russell

Browder, Earl Russell, 1891–1973, American Communist, b. Wichita, Kans. He became converted to socialism as a boy, and after imprisonment (1917–18, 1919–20) for opposing the draft he joined the Communist party. Following his return from a trip to China for the party, he was secretary-general of the party (1930–44) and president of the Communist political association (1944–45), which briefly replaced the party. He was the Communist party's candidate for President (1936,1940) and editor in chief of the Daily Worker (1944–45). In 1940 he was convicted of passport fraud, and he was imprisoned in 1941, but he was freed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942. During World War II he advocated greater cooperation between the Soviet Union and the West. When the war ended, this policy was repudiated by the leaders of the USSR and resulted in his removal from all party offices (1945) and from the party (1946). Among his works are Communism in the United States (1935), What Is Communism? (1936), The People's Front (1938), War or Peace with Russia? (1947), and Marx and America (1958).